


touch down

by Gorsecloud



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal
Genre: Gen, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Post-Persona 5, Post-Persona 5: The Royal, dynamic tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24531805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorsecloud/pseuds/Gorsecloud
Summary: Mitsuru Kirijo attempts to kidnap Futaba.Only not exactly, but tempting someone out to attend your high school with information about a cognitive psience program when you’re really trying to stealth recruit them to your secret organization is close enough, right?One thing's for sure. It's going to be an interesting school year.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	touch down

“Do we _have_ to stop by Port Island first?” Futaba couldn’t help but whine, curled up in the backmost row of the van that… they were still all arguing about naming. _She_ wanted something classic like The Phantomobile, but frequently butted heads with Yusuke and Morgana and sometimes the others. Except for Ren, who preferred to listen with amusement, and Makoto, who didn’t really think they needed to name the van at all.   
  
Speaking of Makoto-  
  
“Futaba! It’s not safe to sit like that!”   
  
With a sigh, Futaba braced her hands underneath herself and pushed, until her back was no longer halfway across the seat itself with feet framing Yusuke’s head on the seat in front of her (he didn’t notice, he never noticed).   
  
“And yes. We do. We’re all looking forward to seeing Ren, but don’t have enough room for all of us and your bags _and_ his,” Makoto went on to remind her, her voice softening a little now.  
  
Ryuji, riding shotgun, grinned, “So we just gotta drop Futaba’s stuff off at her new dorm, right? Then it’s off to Inaba.” Ren’s hometown.   
  
“Right,” Ann agreed, “Man… it’s still so weird thinking of Futaba living in a dorm.”   
  
“You’re telling me,” she muttered. Most of the time she couldn’t really believe it herself - it hadn’t quite sunk in that she wasn’t going to be able to see Sojiro until Golden Week until she’d hugged him tightly goodbye early that morning.   
  
“Well, we’re all very proud of the progress you’ve been making.” That was Haru, showing off - in Futaba’s opinion - the sweet, sweet manager skills she’d been picking up between her business degree and the Big Bang Burger administrivia she’d started to take over, “I’m sure Ren will say the same when we see him.”   
  
Futaba made a noncommittal noise, turning her gaze outwards. At the very least sitting upright with her butt _under_ her let her get a better view out the window of her new stomping grounds. There was Iwatodai City, looking fairly impressive so far as places that weren’t Tokyo went. And beyond it, a spindly monorail stretched between the city and the man made Tatsumi Port Island, where her new school would be.

* * *

“You’re _what_?” Ann was the first person to say anything, when Futaba had finally worked up the nerve to tell them.   
  
“Thinking of transferring next year,” Futaba repeated, bright red flags on her cheeks and her eyes stubbornly on a particular intersection of lines on her plaid skirt. “It’s not that I don’t like Shujin- I mean I don’t but I don’t like _any_ school but...” she swallowed.   
  
It was December, and a number of the former Phantom Thieves had all been given the invitation to gather at LeBlanc for some attempted studying. So far it was mainly the ones left at Shujin - Futaba, Ann, Ryuji, and even Sumire had managed to get a little time to catch up on her academics - with a couple of promises from some of the others to try to drop by. So far as actual studying went though, it was more of a mixed bag. They got off topic so much that Futaba had finally figured that…. Well now might be as good a time as any to talk about her thoughts.   
  
“It’s fine if you want to!” Ann was always quick to pick up when she was nervous and reassure her in these kinds of situations, at least. She’d miss that.   
  
“Where were you thinking of going?” Ryuji added, peeling his face off of one of his textbooks.   
  
Futaba hesitated, eyes darting over to look at Sojiro, who of course was already looking back but gave her an ambivalent sort of shrug that said ‘it’s your decision.’   
  
With a sigh, she reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. Both it and the letter inside were rather worn and creased - they’d been a very frequent target of fidgety fingers of late. And she’d been _very_ fidgety, thinking about this as much as she was. Not giving herself any time to think too hard about it, she slid it across the table to Ann. Ryuji leaned over to get a better look while she pulled it out, and Sumire - sitting next to Futaba - leaned forward as well, curious.   
  
“ _Miss Sakura,_ ” Ann read aloud, “ _My name is Mitsuru Kirijo of the Kirijo Foundation-_ wait the _Kirijo_ Foundation? THAT Kirijo Foundation?”   
  
Futaba bobbed her head wordlessly.   
  
“Mitsuru Kirijo? Hang on, ain’t that like…” Futaba was pretty sure Ryuji was putting two and two together from the name, more than he _actually_ recognized it, but she was too nervous to dig at him about it. Plus within a week of the first time Ryuji caught her having a breakdown in the Shujin courtyard over some nasty notes that’d been lobbed her way during free period, she’d been unofficially but indisputably put under the protection of the entire Shujin track team.   
  
“Yes. She’s the current president of the Kirijo Group.” It was Sumire who answered, and they all turned to look at her in surprise and interest. All except Ann, who was still reading.   
  
“You know her?” Futaba asked. It wasn’t like… Haru levels of celebrity, but between gymnastics and her father, Sumire ended up knowing some surprising people.  
  
“Not really,” Sumire shook her head, “My father’s station has covered her before, and she’s even been brought into the studio a couple times, but that’s not really all that surprising.”   
  
“Yeah, no,” Futaba sighed, dropping her arms on the table so she could rest a chin on one hand.   
  
“Wait, _what_?” Ann’s next words cut their current train of thought. She looked up to stare, wide-eyed, at Futaba, who returned her gaze nervously. She was pretty sure she had a good idea what had caught Ann’s attention. “Is this legit?”   
  
“What is it?” Ryuji asked, shoving his head over to peer at the letter again.  
  
Ann gently pushed him away from where he was practically leaning over her, then shoved the paper across the table to him so he could read it for himself. “It’s an invitation to a high school that the Kirijo group sponsors. It says they want to start a new special course on _cognitive psience_ and are asking if she wants to be part of the inaugural class,” she explained.   
  
“Wait, for real?” Ryuji said, hunching over to get a better look at it. There was a frown on his face though, and a distinct note of suspicion there too. Sumire and Ann seemed to be thinking along similar lines - the former biting her lip and the latter leaning forward, face set. Futaba couldn’t blame them. Whenever adults seemed to take a particular interest in the cognitive world, the reasons and end results were usually… not good. But still.  
  
She glanced over at Sojiro again, who - again - gave her a look that let her know this was her rodeo.  
  
“... it could be legit,” she admitted.   
  
The bell chimed. “What’s going on?”   
  
Ann shot up immediately, “Hey, guys, listen to this!”   
  
Makoto and Haru had arrived. Futaba was… ultimately relieved at the time it bought her, as the two new arrivals drew up chairs and got settled, while the others caught them up to speed. And hugged everyone who wanted one, gave updates on how they were doing, got their own study materials out, _and_ Sojiro came over to offer them coffee and curry… it was a whole process. Which she used for thinking time.   
  
Admittedly, she didn’t understand why she felt nervous about it at all, which was kind of what had her thinking so much. Probably. Just… cognitive psience always felt so _personal_. Probably because of her mom. Almost certainly because of her mom. And what she herself wanted to do. Maruki kind of had been pretty solid proof that her mom wasn’t the only one studying the cognitive world, as were the events of summer break that past year. But she was still… protective of the subject, and uneasy if not outright hostile towards those who might want to abuse it.   
  
“You know,” Makoto said finally, once things had settled down enough to return to the topic of Futaba’s school plans, “I actually did some searching on cognitive psience after we helped out with your Palace, Futaba. And this isn’t the first time the Kirijo Group has had an interest in it.”   
  
Slowly dragging herself out of her thoughts, Futaba nodded. “Mmhm. My mom worked for them for a while when I was younger. I’ve actually been to Iwatodai before.”   
  
“Huh,” Ann leaned forward, “You know, I don’t think you’ve ever actually mentioned the places your mom’s worked for much before.”   
  
“The Kirijo Group, The Nanjo Group, a few universities, and the government, mostly,” Futaba replied easily. It was a short list.   
  
“Huh… it’s probably a good thing though, that not a lot of people want to stick their nose in this kind of thing, isn’t it?” Ryuji commented, bouncing his foot absentmindedly, “Wonder why just those two, though.”   
  
Makoto seemed thoughtful herself, but shook her head after a moment, “Setting that aside, you’ve already said you’ve been thinking about going forward, right Futaba?”   
  
Back in the hotseat again already, huh? Oh well. “Yeah, I kind of was. I mean, it’d be a big change, and it’d honestly be kind of scary. But this is something I might really want to do. And if it’s a special new course, there’s probably going to be chances to meet with experts in the field. Maybe even people who knew my mom. You know, networking and all that stuff.”   
  
“Besides, stuff’s already going to be changing a lot anyway. Ryuji and Ann are graduating this year. Sumire’s busy with training-”   
  
“Sorry...’ the other girl murmured sheepishly. Futaba waved her off as she continued.   
  
“-and next year she’ll be starting with entrance exams too. And Kaoru’s nice but not like… they’re not gonna make any anime about our friendship or anything.”   
  
Not that Kaoru Iwai was a bad friend either. They were in the same class, and had initially bonded over mutual appreciation of how awesome Ren was. Then he’d caught a rude note one of their classmates had been trying to throw at her over his head and threw it right back. It had snowballed from there. Again, not bad. But not the kind of thing she might give up this kind of opportunity over. Especially since social media and texting existed.   
  
“There’s other reasons too, and not all of it is stuff I really wanna talk about yet...” she trailed off, glancing over at Sojiro again briefly, before looking down. They’d already had a pretty lengthy discussion about this already - she’d told him before that she wanted to live with him, her dad, forever if he let her, and she _meant_ it. But she needed to prove she could take care of herself if she ever needed to, right? Who knew where her college or job would end up taking her, thinking back on her time with her mom’s previous employers.   
  
Plus y'know... wanting to actually prove she could. To herself, if nobody else.   
  
There was a hand on her shoulder. Futaba blinked and glanced over to see Sumire smiling at her. “I’m sure you’ll do great, so long as you’ve got your heart set on it.” Sumire would know something about determination and chasing one’s dreams, wouldn’t she. Futaba grinned back, a little sheepish despite herself. Okay, time to save face.   
  
“Besides,” she said, brightening a bit, “Ren lives over in Inaba right? It’s actually _really_ close to Iwatodai! I could try to see him during weekends or something!”  
  
Ryuji reached across the table and flicked her forehead. “You know he’s trying to come back to Tokyo for college, right?”  
  
The rest of the group laughed, and laughed harder when Futaba threatened to pelt him with miscellaneous desk supplies for the rest of the evening. Even Makoto cracked a grin despite herself.   
  
“You will call us though, right?” Haru asked, once the last of the chuckles subsided, “If there’s any trouble, or something about the course isn’t what it seems to be? Assuming you do decide to go.”  
  
“‘Course not,” Futaba said breezily, “I’m a navigator, remember? No flying solo for me.”   
  
That being said… Haru’s words did touch on one of the other reasons she wanted to go. Too many people wanted to misuse the cognitive world and its research for their own gain. She wasn’t going to let it keep happening. If there was something sketchy going on, she absolutely wanted to find it.   
  
And one other thing, maybe, but only time would tell if that one was going to pan out.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I emerge from the abyss to bring you... something? Many somethings if I can manage it. 
> 
> I wish I could solidly say I have a plan for where I'm going with this beyond the first couple chapters, the base concept, a lot of background lore, and a few disconnected aspects/scenes here and there, but! I don't! There are ideas you get that are plot/story-driven and those that are character-driven, and this was definitely more the latter. 
> 
> So we'll need to play this by ear and see where it goes.


End file.
